


Parenting isn't easy (especially when its not your kid)

by Cumputer_glitches



Category: Don't Starve (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Adoption, In a way, More tags will be added as the story progresses, Other, Sort Of, he finds a got damn spider in the woods, spoilers in tags ig, webber is a tiny boy when he finds him, wilson dad au, wilson may be a scientist but he's the true mother of the group
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-08
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-07-08 16:21:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15934091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cumputer_glitches/pseuds/Cumputer_glitches
Summary: Wilson had been trapped in the lands for what seemed like years. He found Wendy and Willow, two people he assumed had met the same fate seeing as they were here, but nothing could have prepared him for what he would find in the forest.Especially now that it was his job to take care of it





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hhhhhrgh finally writing something public for this
> 
> I've had this idea for hundreds of years lmao

Wilson was better off alone

That's always what he had told himself, from his younger years in school to his prime as a stay-at-home scientist, he always felt he worked better (and happier) when he was alone with no human interaction except for those who came to visit about his works or to discus projects they would want made for them. 

He lived secluded up in a mountain for a reason didn't he?

He would have never seen himself enjoying human interaction in his wildest dreams, especially not ones that held the new reality he was currently living in. Right. Living in the wilderness, having to fight for your life with primitive tools you would hear about being used only in the lives of the first humans on earth. It did deals to his mental health, which was bad enough as it was. He didn't need the beasts that came along with low mental states, no thank you. Especially not when he found out there were others going through the same ordeal that he was.

The first one he met was Willow.

He didn't search her out, it was more like she had found him. He was collecting wood when a fire erupted, he ran off to avoid being burnt up much like the forest .What kind of monster could have made that? he thought, only to see an anxious woman standing in the middle of the charred remains.

Short to say, his first friend in this whole wild land, and she was a nervous wreck of a pyromaniac. A close friendship was found after what seemed like months of bickering and Wilson attempting to keep Willow's sanity in check so she wouldn't burn down their camp site. It was like two siblings being reunited after years of being apart, only they weren't related, or that Wilson knew of, he never really spoke to his family, and they found each other in the darkness of some nightmare world.

Then they found Wendy.

It was in the middle of the day when they had found her, or better yet, Willow had, running to Wilson with the poor girl in her arms knocked unconscious. Lord, what was a kid doing all the way out here? Especially with that much damage? It didn't take much for Willow to convince him to patch up the girl. Poor thing left to rest on his bedroll and tent. He could sleep on the ground. Or not sleep at all. He was fine with either option really.

Through the time they had let Wendy stay with them, they had become a small family of sorts. They even found out she had a twin sister. Or used to.

They only found out due to the ghost that followed her around after she had killed a rabbit next to her flower. You can imagine Wilson's shock at that nonsense. A ghost! 

The rabbit killing too, but lets be honest, he has seen much worse by this point. They all had an understanding of each other (the only things they didn't understand were why the two girls had powers that no normal human possessed while Wilson was stuck with just being smart. No one commented to save him the embarrassment) and with that they had grown closer. They helped each other out of close encounters or near death experiences, and in return the others would help back 

It was like an old routine. The two adults would prepare for gathering and harvesting nearby food, vegetation, and supplies for the day, and while they did that Wendy stayed behind, her sister to be summoned for extra protection say any strange beasts or monsters come around while the two were gone.

None of them were expecting a new addition to their small family, especially not in the way that it happened.

It started when the forest near them was set aflame, Wilson suspected Willow's doing but she denied of course, taking some of their much needed supplies and food down with it. It was troublesome, very, and it left the gentlemanly, though sometimes not, scientist in a bad mood when he had to search through the charred trees and grass for anything that could be salvaged. He found pine cones and burned twigs, the usual stuff you'd find in a forest burnt down by your nervous wreck of a fiery best friend, but what he never expected to find was a spiders nest.

Even if they inhabited the forests around from what he had seen, he never expected to find one this close to their camp site, or close at all in fact. He took a moment to look over it. It was abandoned of course, so poking and prodding inside the thing (with a stick of course, he wasn't dumb enough to just use his hands) wasn't too dangerous all things considered. Half of it was charred, but could be salvageable for some silk and maybe whatever else these suckers put in to make these things so strong. 

When he pulled back one bit of the nest however, what he found inside left him a bit speechless and mostly confused. Inside was what he assumed to be a charred body, maybe that of a spider who was too weak to run or escape and met their untimely demise there. Was it shocking? yes, very considering how protective of each other these things are, so it shocked him to see that one would have been left for dead.

Did it sadden him though..? Not entirely. Yes, he felt a pang in his chest at the thought of the creature's last living moments being alone, surrounded in flames. But that was nature. It gave and it took. It was a natural cycle. 

And just like any person who knows about the natural cycle of life. He poked it with the stick. hey, who knows, it could be used as SOMETHING. Like meat or bait for bigger prey. He stopped though, eyes wide and mouth agape when a whimper came from the creature, its head turning to the side and its small eyes opening up to Wilson. 

It was a kid. It was still a spider however. Wilson knew that fully well, but what he didn't know was why it had a human like lower body but was so small and fragile. 

Maybe it was the fire? It might have stunted its growth, but that would take years to go in effect, not the two minutes it took to burn and for him to find it. It let out a weak whimpering cough before it laid its head back onto the ground, its eyes closing again. It was much too weak to even lift its own head up, how could it survive out here? 

It was a tough decision as he made it, a sigh leaving the scientist's lips as he stood and put the stick in his bag. His hands dipped into the charred nest to pull out the weak monster inside, which he was expecting to attack him the moment he lifted it out of its burnt make-shift home. Thankfully, it didn't, Wilson placing it to his chest like he has seen many people do with children, not that he ever wanted any to begin with, that was another no thanks. He looked down to it as it pressed against his sweater-vest, its small claws weakly gripping the fabric in them before it went limp. It's breathing was a soft wheeze, but thankfully didn't seem bad enough to cause alarm. 

"let's bring you back.." he whispered to it, trekking his way back towards their base. He could come back for the charcoal and silk later, first he had a tiny monster to deal with.

They weren't going to believe what he found out in the woods.


	2. From ashes too ashes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wilson finds out the hard way that taking care of a small nearly dead spider-child was harder than he made it out to be

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so uh.  
> there are gross things in this chapter, so if you're squeamish at detailed blood and meat preperation y0ou mgiht wanna go ahead and stop here,,,

When Wilson had gotten back to camp, the reactions to his newfound discovery weren't exactly what he thought they'd be. He expected fights and backlash, a chance for him to seem good in their eyes for a moment (they were friends, and he wasn't a father figure to them. just an idiot scientist) and , well. He sort of got what he wanted.

Willow looked to Wilson when he came trudging into the camp, the light on her lighter flickering out once she had closed it to go meet with the gentleman scientist. "Did you find anything useful?" She had asked, not noticing the bundle of black in the man's arms. 

His smile however, was quite obvious.

"Yes, in fact, I did" he said, motioning down towards the mass of fur in his arms, Willow's brow raising in confusion for a moment. "What are we supposed to do with spider fuzz?" She had asked, Wilson humming as he moved his hand a bit, a slow chirp leaving the hybrid in his arms. Willow's eyes began to widen. 

"Oh my good lord- Wilson what is that-" 

"It's a kid, Willow" he said, said pyromaniac beginning to flick her lighter on an off with anxiety. A kid? With spider fur?? Now that was unusual. The scientist's face showed more of pride for grabbing the little thing than out of any actual concern he might've had for it, but Willow could care less. "Ok. So you found a kid..where exactly..?"  
  
"Out in the woods in a spiders nest. You know. The woods you burnt down" he said, punctuating with a glare towards the woman who shrugged and flicked her lighter again. "I told you for the last time, Wilson, I didn't start that fire. As beautiful as it was" She replied, her own face showing off pride now as Wilson narrowed his eyes to her. "Fine then" He said moving closer into the camp.

He placed his pack down next to his own chest, careful as to not startle the kid awake, before placing the newer things he had gotten into it. A few needed materials, rocks, gold, logs, twigs, ect. and then the silk he had grabbed before leaving to get back to the camp. He would have grabbed more but the rest o it was woven into that nest and dark was coming quicker than expected, he'd rather get out of there with the kid before the nightmare beast awake and caught them both in the dark. 

Hell he was hurt enough himself, imagine how badly it would go for the kid. 

He let a sigh escape as he shut the lid to the chest, sitting himself by the fire with the spider held against his chest still. They hadn't stirred the entire trip to the campsite, worry soon coming over him. "I don't think they've eaten at all." he said quietly, running his fingers over the creature's head before stopping and pulling his hand away. No. No way. No way was he going to start acting protective over a  _ **SPIDER**_. A spider that eats things they don't even have in stock. All they carried was berries and carrots, easy food to survive off of that a spider would diffidently not. 

Okay then, so they go out in the morning during their rotations and gather materials and food. Meaty food Shouldn't be hard. Wendy can fend for herself and they have traps placed all around the area, easy pickings and easy catches.

Wendy would have to meet them soon anyway. He'd just leave them with her the next morning while they're gathering.

Wilson soon finds out however, that that is a horrible fucking idea. 

When Wendy was greeted with the small, barely living spiderling, she had no fucking clue what they were trying to pull. She never babysat, was only babysitted, and the only person who could teach her about that stuff was dead and currently tucked away in her flower. So the plan was set up to back fire anyway, but good ol' Wilson wouldn't see what was right in front of his face. So when the little thing started to wail out when she summoned her sister, she wasn't all that surprised. It seemed that Abigail's presence was the only thing that bothered them, seeing as it was probably their first time seeing a ghost.

The killing of an animal might've been a part of it, but like she said, she never babysat. 

Wilson was the first one to make it back to camp at the screams that could only be described as an old, withered, and broken accordion being pushed down the stairs. He had no clue what had happened and was too busy trying to calm the hybrid who was no doubt starving by now, having not eaten in the longest time as far as the scientist knew. He looked up to Wendy, her face blank with no emotion as her sister levitated slightly beside her. "What happened?" he asked, Wendy's shoulders giving a small shrug as her sister bobbed a bit, probably mimicking the shrug had she had shoulders. 

"We have no clue, Mr. Higgsbury. He just started crying when Abigail came out" she said, eyes blinking as she looked up to him. Wilson stared at her for a moment before sighing, sitting beside the campfire as he pulled his pack off. "Okay then..guess I'll stay here.. You and Abigail can go out on field work since Willow is still out there gathering. It shouldn't be too dangerous" he stated, pulling the pack open to reveal a few morsels and berries inside. At least he managed to snag a few rabbits before running back.

Wendy only stared at him for a moment before running off into the wilderness, her dead sister following close behind her. Man she was fast for a ghost. He looked down to the creature who had started to calm down, frowning a bit as he pulled a morsel from his pack. How the hell was he supposed to feed this thing?? It didn't have any lower teeth as far as he could see, just some fangs.

And frankly he didn't want to go poking and prodding into a random spider's mouth. He poked and prodded enough in the nest he got them from. He placed the small creature in his lap, a gurggly whine being his response as he attempted to pull small pieces of the morsel apart (quite messily as well, seeing as they were fresh) and placing them in one of their leftover salve containers. It was washed out, (mostly) and its not like he had anything better to hold them in.  
  
Now the only issue was figuring out how to feed it to them. The small thing could barely breathe, how were they supposed to chew? He looked down to the bowl for a moment before he groaned in disgust, squeezing the rest of the morsel's contents into it to cover the meat inside (a gross bloody concoction. He was a doctor at one time, but he hoped that seeing these kinds of things would never come up in his schedule) and loosened it into a soggy mush of some sorts. 

He was going to hate this next part even more. He grabbed a nearby piece of flint, thankfully sharp as he pressed it into the bowl, attempting to mash up the bits of meat and blood into a even more soggy and mush like state. He gagged as he tried to keep his face away from it as best as he cooked. It stank like death and reeked of the sins of the devil himself.

Thank whatever higher being above that he was not a religious man.

A deep red mush was what was left when he was finished, gagging once more before shutting his mouth as best he could to keep from smelling it and losing his breakfast. Dark claws were matted in his sweater vest while he tried to move the little beast and keep his other hand on the container so it wouldn't spill. It was harder then it would seem.

Once he did manage though, he pressed the container to the hybrid's mouth hoping for this to work somewhat. If it did it would mean that he not only successfully took care of a monster, but also a child on his own, it meant he got bragging right for when Willow messed up on her turn.  

There was no way he was going to take care of them himself alone all the time. Yea. No.

He held his breath as small claws gripped onto the tiny container, Wilson tipping it into their mouth slightly before letting his breath free as they began to swallow down the contents in the bowl.

Oh thank the father of science that it worked. 

He guessed it was soft enough to swallow down without much issue, lest he be having to pull a wad of meat out of its mouth before it died of asphyxiation. 

Either way it worked, and the gross bloody mush was drained away from the bowl in no time, the spider's tongue coming out to lick what was left on their fangs and teeth. Their claws flexed and relaxed for a few moments before their solid white eyes blinked open for a small moment, The scientist staring down to them as they looked up to him. What was only a few seconds but seemed like eternity, their eyes shut once more, turning to bury their head into his chest and their small claws tangled into his vest.

He let out another sigh he didn't know he was holding out when the small creature started to fall asleep against him, placing the container down next to him.   
  
Now he only had to do this for another year or so.

And he was going to try his damned hardest to do this right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did y'all know I had a tumblr where I do bad drawings too  
> it's great


	3. I want you all to know

I had about over eight thousand words on this chapter before ao3 decided to shit itself  
so why is there so chapter three currently?  
it died  
for now  
I mean I'm still rewriting it but it won't be as long


End file.
